Just under 30 left to lamb on Tullamore Farm

After a busy month, lambing on Tullamore Farm is now almost at an end, with just under 30 hoggets left to lamb.

The mature ewe flock is now finished lambing and out at grass, so we have a full report on how the flock has performed so far.

All of the data was recorded trough the Sheep Ireland system. For the ewes, we recorded litter size, milking ability, lambing difficulty and mothering ability, while for the lambs we recorded lamb vigour and birth weight.

Litter size

So far this year, 63% of the flock has lambed down twins and 29% have lambed down with a single. Also this year, 7% lambed down triplets and there was even a set of quads born.

The single and triplet ewes are housed in the same shed. This allowed for easy cross-fostering, which has been very successful this year, with many of the triplets getting adopted on to singles.

Laming difficulty

This year, 62% of the flock lambed down completely unassisted and 19% lambed down with voluntary assistance. These ewes could have lambed themselves, but the decision was made to lamb them if there was going to be nobody in the yard for a period of time.

Some 13% of ewes required slight assistance and just 7% of ewes required significant assistance.

Milking ability

The ewes’ milking ability was very strong this year, with 18% of ewes scoring very good and 69% of ewes scoring good.

There were just 9% of ewes scored average for milking ability and just 2% of ewes scoring poor for milking ability.

Mothering ability

With the majority of the flock made up of Mule, Mule-cross and Easycare ewes, mothering ability has always been extremely strong and this year was no exception, with 17% of ewes scoring very good and 79% of ewes scoring good.

There was just 3% of ewes scored average and one ewe scored poor.

Lamb birth weight

Lamb birth weigh was also very strong on Tullamore Farm this year, with the heaviest lamb born weighing in at a whopping 9.3kg.

The total lambs born so far have had an average birth weight of 5.68kg. Singles averaged 6.01kg, twins averaged 5.67kg and the triplets averaged 5.25kg.

The set of quads that were born also had an extremely strong average birth weight of 5.63kg.

Lamb mortality on Tullamore Farm also dropped to 4% this year.

Read next week's update to find out how preparations for breeding are coming along in the cattle herd.